Celebrating the Magic of Christmas

What a long, crazy week it has been here. We've all been sick, and finally this morning I'm starting to feel like I will get better! The kids missed their Halloween parties at school, picture re-take day, and I missed Parent Teacher Conferences (I have them rescheduled with their teachers). All week I kept thinking about making this card, and last night I finally got my stuff out and made it. I love this tree! My mother-in-law has a gorgeous tree that is huge, and every year she covers it in ornaments. Really old ones that she's had for a long time, ones that she inherited from her mom when she passed away. This card is for her. If this was really her tree, it would be covered in ornaments, with no gaps at all! I love the Ripe Avocado and Scarlet Jewel together. I think they're a great Christmas combo.

Stamps: PTI Tree Trimming Trio
Ink: PTI Ripe Avocado, Scarlet Jewel, Colorbox Silver
CS: PTI Rustic Cream
Accessories: Holiday Button Mix

Papertrey Ink Holiday Hop

I was so excited that the UPS truck delivered my package on time, so I could get this little project ready for the blog hop! I've had this idea in my head since I saw these trees released a month ago. I LOVE to make cookie mixes for family and friends for the holidays. The year that my daughter was born, I hadn't done anything for family and friends and was feeling really down about it. At the last minute, literally an hour or so before my husband was going to the family Christmas dinner, I started whipping out little jars of cookie mix. It went so fast, and I felt happy to have something to send with him to the party (I was keeping the kiddos home...RSV and flu season). It's a bummer that I didn't have this stamp all those years ago. I think that they look really neat all layered in a jar. I always think that if people have reached their cookie-eating limit, they can wait and make these after the holiday bloat goes away! If you are mailing goodies to people instead of hand delivering, you can also put the cookie mix into ziploc-type bags. It doesn't layer well, so it's just a jumbled cookie mix, but it still tastes just as good, and you don't have to worry about fresh cookies going stale before they can be eaten.

A few tips I will share (which I didn't follow here) if you plan on doing your own cookie mixes, or any other mix in a jar:
1) Use wide mouth jars. It makes it easier to load all the ingredients, as well as tapping it down to get everything to fit. Here is the link to the recipe I use for my "canned cookies."
2) Adding a little cut out of material to the top of the jar really gives it a nice finished look. If you don't have material, which I usually don't, I do like to at least use a plain screw on lid. The "bring out the best" on the lid is a little distracting from the overall look of the project.
3) The thing I like about this particular cookie recipe is that even without adding the raisins or chocolate chips that the recipe calls for, the jar is almost full. So if you worry about whether people would prefer raisins or chocolate chips, you can just omit them from the jar, but make sure that you add that ingredient to the recipe card.

Stamps: PTI Tree Trimming Trio
Ink: PTI Enchanted Evening, Plum Pudding, Scarlet Jewel, Summer Sunrise
CS: PTI Enchanted Evening, Scarlet Jewel
Accessories: PTI Scarlet Jewel Satin Ribbon, Epoxy Stickers

Snowflakes A-plenty

I don't love winter and I don't love snow. But I love using snowflakes for winter and Christmas projects. I found an awesome set of snowflakes on ebay the other day. So cheap that I had to buy them! There was one long continual swirly shape, that I was hoping would fit on the side of my top note die. It didn't quite fit the way I wanted, so I took my scissors to them, and started cutting them up so that they would fit however I wanted.


I am really happy with how this card turned out. I love these snowflakes!!! It was hard to get a picture of the card so that the gems would sparkle. So, this card really does look better in real life. I try not to say that too often, so that I'm not like the little boy who cried wolf. But I'm so happy with this card. Then I was kind of on my crafter's high, so I decided to try another one.


I'm not quite sure about this one. I guess for a better comparison I should have used the same colors as the blue card. I do like all the snowflakes on the one hand, but then I think maybe it's a little dark. But I am trying to figure out if that's just because of the darker paper. So, crafting friends, do you have an opinion on the second card? And don't tell me you don't like the first one, because I just won't listen Ookay, so maybe you won't like the first one. If you don't, tell me why. I will listen, but I will probably still make a bunch more because I like it). Enjoy your Saturday, I've been so behind in posting, but I have a few fun projects already done, and I'm hoping for a full weekend of crafting.

Oh, and I found through Susan's Simplicity blog a link to this great tutorial for tying knots so that they stay put. I found the tutorial a long time ago, made several cards with it, and thought that I would definitely remember how to do it. Until I needed it again for this card. So here is my link so I can find it more easily, and any of you can too!

Stamps: Inkadinkado Snowflakes A-plenty, Studio G Sentiment
Ink: PTI Enchanted Evening, Scarlet Jewel
CS: PTI Scarlet Jewel, Spring Rain
Accessories: Top Note Die, Enchanted Evening Satin Ribbon, Offray Petite Gems

Carving the Pumpkin

I did actually complete a cute little project with paper and glue the other day. But it's out of my hands, and I forgot to get a picture of it. So instead I'm sharing yet another scrapbook page. I found an awesome layout in an old Simple Scrapbooks magazine that I totally copied for this page. I was a little worried my son was going to complain that there were flowers on his page, but since they are orange, he didn't put up too much of a fuss.

ETA: "Carving the Pumpkin" is a cool FREE Word Art which is available here (scroll down a bit, you'll see it). I was in a hurry to get this posted and forgot to leave the link.

Autumn

Well, the field trip was a ton of fun. I got a little worried, though, the night before. I woke up to thunder and lightning at about 2 in the morning. It went on and on with pouring rain, and kept me awake for over 2 hours! I finally fell back asleep, and by the time morning came, it was cool and crisp but there was no rain. I haven't gotten any scrapbook pages with those pictures yet. But here is a page I got done today. Somedays when we are headed up to the bus stop, I grab my camera. This day our neighbor's tree looked so gorgeous, I was glad I'd brought the camera with me.

Sending Hugs

Well here we are at Monday yet again. I don't know how the weekend goes by so fast! Here is a quick card I made using the another Fall-to Layout from the Clean and Simple Stamping Blog. I had a hard time adding the sentiment panel hanging over the edge like that, but I made myself do it. I was going to use some of my pretty pink buttons, but ended up using a butterfly with rhinestones to pop in the mail easier. I love the sayings from the PTI Friends 'Til The End set, but I wish they'd come out with a second version and have all the same sentiments, in a similar font, but cursive. Tomorrow is my kindergartener's first field trip. They're going to a pumpkin patch/corn maze, and I get to go with her class! I'm almost as excited as she is, I think. It's supposed to be a gorgeous sunny day, so I'm hoping for some fun pumpkin patch pictures!

Stamps: SU Pretty Petals, PTI Friends 'Til The End
Ink: PTI Plum Pudding, Raspberry Fizz, Ripe Avocado
CS: PTI Plum Pudding, White, SU Rose Red
Accessories: Martha Stewart Classic Butterfly Punch, Rhinestones

Studio G Sketch Challenge

I made this card following a sketch challenge posted on Paper Craft Planet. If it wouldn't have been a sketch challenge, I'd have left off the ribbons. They gave me fits! I had some Christmassy ribbon from last year that had great colors in it that matched the ornaments. I got that ribbon added and it looked way too busy. So I switched the card, and added the ribbon to a panel that didn't have any embossing. That helped cut down on the business. But then I got them glued down crooked. Scor-tape is not removable! HA! So, after a lot of trial and error, finally this is the design I went with. I do love these little ornaments.

Stamps: Studio G
Ink: PTI Pure Poppy, Scarlet Jewel, and copics
CS: PTI Pure Poppy, White
Accessories: Cuttlebug Snowflake Embossing Folder, PTI Ripe Avocado Ribbon, Labels One Nestabilities

We are the champions!

Well, flag football is over for the season. My boy had so much fun. Their team went undefeated, and the boys loved it! Here is the little "thank you" I made for his coaches. The head coach had his son and daughter both help him coach, and they were awesome. His son came up with awesome plays and worked with the kids so well. My husband helped as the defensive coach and my son now loves playing defense. He told me after the first few games that he dreams about rushing the quarterback. Okay, here it is:

I was pretty excited with how it turned out. I stopped by Archiver's for a few minutes the other day and they had this cool football set. I knew it would be perfect for this little project. Now, on the colors.....I was so bummed. My husband and son are huge 49ers fans. I love the Bengals. Well, their flag football team was the Bengals. When I found out I was so excited! I kept teasing my son about being a Bengal. Then they got their uniforms....and they looked way more like 9ers colors than Bengal colors. The project matches their colors almost perfectly. I so wanted to get to do scrapbook pages for my son in Bengals orange! HA! Oh, and I have to show you the back of the project, too. It's nothing special, but I think it's the coolest stamp in the whole set:

Enjoy your crafting day. And see, I can post a project without pink and green on it!

Stamps: Hampton Art
CS: PTI Scarlet Jewel, Smokey Shadow
Ink: PTI Fresh Snow
Accessories: Mini Spiral Clips
My Timeless Templates: Milk Made

Embrace Rhinestones

Well, here we are at Monday. Our internet has been spotty {and that's being generous} all weekend long, my fantasy football team performed horribly, and World Card Making Day is officially over. At least there is still a little time left to enter some of the contests from the weekend. This card is for the 3rd challenge issued by Papertrey Ink's Nichole Heady: inspiration from India. I got this card all done, and went back to read the official challenge as I was preparing to post this. Well, the inspiration is from India {I used the top left-hand picture}, but the official challenge is to "incorporate rhinestones, sequins and jewels in a fun and artistic way." I don't know how fun and artistic a straight line of rhinestones is, but I sure love the finished card, so I'm posting it anyway! The layout is from my go-to spot for CAS layouts: The Clean and Simple Stamping Blog.

Stamps: PTI Friends 'Til The End, Life
Ink: PTI Pure Poppy, Raspberry Fizz, Ripe Avocado
CS: PTI Raspberry Fizz, Ripe Avocado, White
Accessories: Kaiser Rhinestones

Inspiration from Mexico

The second challenge posted by Nichole Heady for WCMD, was to gain inspiration from Mexico. I googled a lot of different pictures, but didn't ever find one I was crazy about. So finally I decided to use the colors the girl is wearing in the bottom right hand picture posted above. I loved the pink and green. I had tried using the fall-to layout #61 from the Clean and Simple Stamping Blog the other day. The overall look wasn't turning out, so I changed that card, but knew I'd want to give this layout another try. So as I was planning this card, I decided the little flower would look great where the circle was on the sketch. So that's what I did. It's a rainy dreary Sunday, so I'm off to look at the third challenge, and see what I can figure out.

Stamps: PTI Background Basics: Text Style, Friends 'Til The End, Life
Ink: PTI Hibiscus Burst, Pure Poppy, Ripe Avocado
Copics: RV10, RV13, R35
CS: PTI Spring Moss, Vintage Cream
Accessories: Glitter Glue

Cherry Blossoms

This is my first card today to celebrate World Card Making Day. It's for an inspiration challenge posted posted by Nichole Heady here. She's having challenges where we take inspiration from around the world. The first challenge had us traveling to Japan for inspiration. I love this cherry blossom stamp and thought it would be perfect to use. I stayed with soft pinks, added one of my favorite punched borders, and added some ribbon on the other side. I thought the ribbons kind of helped the card mimic the look of kimonos. That's all for now, I'm off to see what my next project will be.

Stamp: Rubber Stampede Cherry Blossom
Ink: PTI Dark Chocolate
Copics: E43, RV 10, RV13, YG91
CS: PTI Hibiscus Burst, Kraft, Sweet Blush, White
Accessories: PTI Hibiscus Burst Ribbon, Ripe Avocado Ribbon, Sweet Blush Ribbon, Martha Stewart Doily Lace Punch

Favorite Girl

Here is a digital scrapbook page I finished today. I'd been thinking about it for a while. I just knew I wanted to use the "favorite girl" digiment to do a scrapbook page for my daughter. I had the cutest layout all picked out but it just wasn't working, so I tossed that idea. When I first started scrapbooking, I never journaled anything. Now, that is my main focus. I want the story to be told, even after I am not there to tell it. I hope you're all having a wonderful Friday! Tomorrow is world card making day! To celebrate, Michelle at Digiments will be offering free digiments and a contest to win all of the previous releases. So take some time to check that out tomorrow. What are you doing to celebrate the day? Let me know if there are some fun links I should check on.